SEA Games 2023: 9-ball men’s singles gold eludes Aloysius Yapp again

PHNOM PENH – From English billiards to 9-ball, players from Myanmar again proved to be the stumbling block for Team Singapore at the SEA Games, with the Republic’s top pool player Aloysius Yapp beaten 9-3 by Phone Myint Kyaw in the 9-ball men’s singles final on Wednesday.

Yapp’s defeat came a day after teammate Peter Gilchrist lost to Pauk Sa in the English billiards men’s singles final.

The 27-year-old, who was gunning for his first gold in the event, told The Straits Times: “I got the worst possible outcome in many situations, it was unbelievable. I’m still annoyed, but there’s nothing I can do now. I just have to channel all my focus on the doubles which starts on Friday.”

While the former world No. 1 has the full set of medals in the 9-ball doubles with Toh Lian Han – a bronze on his debut in 2015, gold in 2017 and silver two years later – he has just two bronze medals each in the 9-ball and 10-ball men’s singles from 2019 and Hanoi a year ago.

He had looked set for an easier path to a breakthrough after the early exits of 2022’s finalists, Philippine champion Johann Chua and silver medallist Carlo Biado.

World No. 19 Yapp also did his part as he beat Thailand’s Tepwin Arannath 9-1 in the round of 16, Brunei’s Ahmad Taufiq Murni 9-6 in the quarter-finals, and Vietnam’s Ta Van Linh 9-4 in the last four.

But in the final, he did not break well and trailed 2-1 when Phone Myint Kyaw made a protest before the fourth frame over the Magic Rack used to arrange the balls, claiming it was not the same one used in his earlier matches.

While the tournament director ordered play to continue, Yapp could not put together a good run, missing some straightforward shots.

The left centre pocket was especially a nightmare as he made two big misses there, and he soon found himself 6-1 down and took a time-out.

But the mishaps continued – in the 11th frame, Yapp produced a superb escape shot to make a 5-9 combination, only to see the cue ball scratch into the same problematic pocket.

There was a reprieve as Phone Myint Kyaw missed a routine 9-ball to seal the match, but he made no mistake in the next frame, celebrating loudly even before sinking the winning shot.

Yapp, who dropped his cue on the table in frustration near the end of the match, said: “I wasn’t affected by his antics because he has a reputation for that so I was prepared for it. But my luck on the table was so bad today, I just couldn’t get going.”

Phone Myint Kyaw, who beat Yapp in the 2019 semi-finals en route to winning gold, denied that his actions constituted gamesmanship. “In my earlier matches here, I was using a bigger Magic Rack, but it was a smaller one that was used for the final,” he said.

“I felt I had the right to protest because it was clear it affected my breaks. Aloysius said he had been using the smaller one, which is fine. He can continue to use that on his breaks, while all I was asking for was for me to use the bigger one on my breaks. But Aloysius declined and the officials also said no.

“Overall, I didn’t expect to win by such a big margin. Luck played a big part, but he made too many errors and my mentality was better, which helped me to make the most of the opportunities.”